For us to pray merely in our vital group meetings is not adequate. For the blending we need to pray day and night. First, we need to pray by ourselves privately. We can be blended by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord (1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13). We need to pray, on our knees if possible, “Lord Jesus, blend me. Blend me, Lord. Grant me the proper prayer I need. I really don’t know what much and thorough prayer is, but grant me this experience to be blended. Lord, blend me as the fine flour of the wheat.” We should pray to get through on every point so that we can be blended.
We need to confess the sin of individualism and individuality. Individualism is a kind of logic, and individuality is a kind of living. We do have a kind of logic by which we live, and that logic is individualism. This “ism” has become a kind of living, and that living is individuality. We have to pray, maybe for more than ten days, to get through on this point.
We need to confess all our defects, shortcomings, wrongdoings, mistakes, transgressions, trespasses, outward sins, and inward evils and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. We have to get through all of these points by prayer. I have been doing this for years. What I am sharing here is altogether from my experience. We may confess that we are wrong in a certain matter, but the Lord would not let us go. He wants us to make a detailed confession of our transgressions and trespasses. In the Lord’s presence, we should itemize the things in which we have transgressed and trespassed. We have to get through with the Lord. We are so natural and rough. We have never been washed by the Lord finely. We need a fine washing. We need to get through all these items by prayer. If we pray in this way, even once, we will sense that we are different.
We need to confess our outward sins and inward evils to the Lord, asking for His forgiveness. We may be able to count our outward sins, but it is hard for us to enumerate our inward evils. Our inward evils are countless. We are the totality of evil. If we are under the Lord’s enlightening, we will realize that our thinking, our intention, and our desire are all evil. Our good intentions are not pure. Our motive is not pure. Even our laughing is not pure, but with a hidden motive. We have to be enlightened and dealt with by the Lord to such an extent.
Eventually, we would realize and tell the Lord that we cannot enumerate all our inward evils. Under His light we would realize that we are just evil. When we look at people, we look at them with an evil purpose. When we go to see people, to visit people, our visit is not that pure but is a mixed thing. If we have not been dealt with to such an extent in our contact with the Lord, we can never be blended with others. We need to be dealt with to such an extent that we lose our confidence in ourselves. We will then realize that in ourselves we cannot be pure. When we pray, we pray with an impure intention. When we speak for the Lord in the church meetings, we have a desire to get more “Amens.” That intention is impure.
We also need to confess our sinful nature. Our nature is our very being, and this being is altogether dirty and rotten. It has been corrupted. This nature has its defilements and its attachment to the contamination of the world. The entire world is a contagious ball. If we become attached to it, we are immediately contaminated. We must be dealt with by the Lord to such an extent that we dare not touch anything worldly. To our feeling, to our consideration, the entire world is a big contagious ball.
We also have to deal with the oldness of our sinful nature. Our nature was inherited from Adam, so it is almost six thousand years old. A young person may think that he is only twenty-four years old, but actually he is almost six thousand years old according to his Adamic nature. This is why the Bible says that we need to be renewed (2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2). We need to be renewed because we are old.